89 UAE Players in Fray at Dubai Junior Open Chess Tourney

89 UAE Players in Fray at Dubai Junior Open Chess Tourney


29 July 2009
DUBAI — UAE tops the record number of entries with 89 juniors in the fray for the Dubai Junior Open Chess Championship which began on Tuesday.

The UAE delegation comprises from several clubs from all the emirates. Mahdi Abdul Rahim the chief arbiter said: “A total of 135 entries of boys and girls from 11 countries are vying for top honours in the week-long championship which is being held at Dubai Chess and Culture club and sponsored by Mont Blanc.”

There are 23 rated players with two Fide masters, two Women Fide masters, three Candidate masters and one Woman Candidate master participating. FM Bajarani Ulvi from Azerbaijan Elo rated 2358 is the top seed followed by FM Al Tarboosh Ward of Syria rated 2173 followed by Antonio Viani D’Cunha of India rated 2107. There will be nine rounds of swiss system and the official web site is arabfide.com.

Jamal Abdouli, Deputy general secretary of Dubai Chess Club said: “We are extremely happy with the response with 89 UAE talented juniors having the opportunity to showcase their talent and gain valuable match practice.” Joe Nahhas, Brand Director, Mont Blanc said: “Mont Blanc is working on many initiatives with UNICEF to develop culture and literacy all over the world. Our association with Dubai Chess Club will continue and we hope that the talented players of UAE would benefit with such an exposure to international chess”. The UAE delegation led by Ibrahim Sultan rated 1814 and Candidate master Naif Saleh are hoping to perform well for the host country. India has the second largest of 28 players followed by Azerbaijan, Bahrain, England, Iran, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Russia, Syria and Turkey.